People Of Color Make Up 41 Percent Of The U.S. But Only 28 Percent Of General-Election Candidates

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

When people of color see politicians who look like them, it can have profound effects. Political science research suggests that this so-called “descriptive representation” increases Americans’ trust in politicians and engagement with politics. But in the U.S., the percentage of people of color running for office lags far behind their share of the population (41 percent). And it’s not enough for nonwhite candidates to simply run; to achieve any sort of proportional representation, obviously, they also have to win.

In 2022, 30 percent of the candidates who ran in Democratic or Republican primaries for Senate, House or governor were people of color, according to new data collected throughout the primary season by political scientists Bernard Fraga and Hunter Rendleman.1 And the data shows that only 28 percent of the candidates appearing on the November ballot will be people of color. In other words, in all likelihood, 2023 will not be the year that people of color are proportionally represented in the halls of government.

Unsurprisingly, as has been the case for decades, Democrats had a more diverse candidate pool. At least 46 percent of their candidates this cycle were people of color, as opposed to only 19 percent of Republican candidates. But, in 2022 — possibly because white candidates were more likely to have advantages like incumbency and fundraising, possibly because of racism on the part of voters, possibly for other reasons — candidates of color from both parties had a harder time winning their primaries. As a result, when we mapped Fraga and Rendleman’s data onto the primary results, we found that people of color will constitute just 39 percent of Democratic general-election candidates and 16 percent of Republican general-election candidates.

Of course, several distinct racial groups are included in those numbers, and some are better represented than others. Here is the full breakdown by race for all candidates who ran in this year’s primaries:

-more-

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/2022-candidates-race-data/

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. Robber baron Roberts gutted the voting rights act in reaction to Obama becoming president.

A reminder:

[mitch96]

2. "People Of Color Make Up 41 Percent Of The U.S.

I think this is what the white nationalists are afraid of. Loosing power to the "other"...
Stop the POC from representing their constituents...
m

[Model35mech]

3. White nationalists sort of like the Census Bureau approach

it doesn't consider people by color and it hasn't considered Hispanic a race.

Historically Hispanics completing the census self identify using white, black, native American, pacific islander or multi-racial.

Under the Census Bureau's categories whites who are not mixed race make up 75.8% of the US population.

That's just fine with the white nationalists

[EmmaLee E]

4. I'd like to see the day when 51% of general election candidates

are Women.

Wait - how many women are enough on the Supreme Court?

Nine - (paraphrasing) RBG